Christmas Eve train cancellations due to lack of staff

Southern Rail services have been cancelled because of a lack of train crew.

Delays are expected to last for the whole of Christmas Eve, a spokesman said.

The operator’s website stated: “There may be various reasons for a member of train crew being unavailable, for example when the service is disrupted this can lead to train crews being displaced and unable to crew their next scheduled service.

“However, one of the underlying factors is that sometimes we do not have enough train crew to carry out both day-to-day operations and the large amount of training required to enable long-term passenger service improvements, without asking train crew to work rest days.”

It added: “Also, while we are recruiting and training, existing train crew retire and leave for personal reasons.

“As a result, there continues to be a risk of cancellations, in particular during periods of high annual leave – but we are steadily overcoming this.”

* Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage

2) Like our Facebook page

3) Follow us on Twitter

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.